Nvidia's GeForce GTX 10-series graphics cards are now available in notebook PCs, the company announced today.

The GPUs, which run on Nvidia's Pascal architecture, will mean a 76 percent improvement over the previous Maxwell architecture in graphics performance for games. That's the largest performance bump between generations in the company's history.

The mobile Pascal cards offered include the GTX 1060, 1070, and 1080. The cheapest 1060-based notebook PCs, from the likes of MSI, Razer, and Asus, go on sale today and start at around $1,300. Nvidia does not disclose how much it charges the original equipment manufacturers for its GPUs.

One of Pascal's most anticipated features for casual gamers is improvements in overclocking. Laptop makers can choose to overclock the graphics cards to run at speeds approaching 300MHz, which is three times higher than what they could do with the previous architecture.

The factory overclocking will appeal to gamers looking for extra performance without having to fiddle with overclocking settings themselves. But it doesn't necessarily mean increased power consumption and woeful battery life: Pascal is 30 percent more power efficient than its predecessor, Nvidia says.

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That's possible because of an overhaul of the chips' electrical components and power supplies. While a 110-watt power supply might offer less than 100 watts to the GPU, sacrificing the rest to heat, the new cards can capture 104 to 106 watts of power, according to GeForce product manager Mark Aevermann.

"We paid extreme attention to the electrical design on these systems," he said during a press briefing.

By boosting power efficiency and performance, Nvidia has its sights set on virtual reality. The Pascal desktop cards already include support for VR gaming, and so will all of their mobile brethren. Nvidia says more than 30 game titles will soon be compatible with its VR architecture, called VRWorks.

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About the Author

As a hardware analyst, Tom tests and reviews laptops, peripherals, and much more at PC Labs in New York City. He previously covered the consumer tech beat as a news reporter for PCMag in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, where he rode in several self-driving cars and witnessed the rise and fall of many startups. Before that, he worked for PCMag's s... See Full Bio

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